SEGA announces Company of Heroes 2 is delayed, and the RTS sequel is now scheduled for release in North America and Europe on June 25th. Relic's RTS sequel was last expected this month, but SEGA's recent acquisition of Relic and the game seems a pretty reasonable excuse for a setback. They also note the game's closed beta, said in December to be near, is still "upcoming." Word is:

SAN FRANCISCO AND LONDON – March 6, 2013 – SEGA® of America, Inc. and SEGA® Europe Ltd. today announced that Company of Heroes™ 2, the eagerly anticipated strategy game from newly acquired Relic Entertainment, Inc. is scheduled for release on June 25th, 2013 in North America and Europe.

Originally slated for earlier in 2013, Relic Entertainment is using the additional time to help Company of Heroes 2 meet the high standard set by its predecessor, the highest rated strategy game of all time *. Underpinned by the cutting-edge Essence 3.0 Engine™, Company of Heroes 2 brings tactical strategy to life like never before, thanks to the realistic ColdTech™ weather system, the revolutionary dynamic line of sight system, TrueSight™ and realistic destructibility.

Jonathan Dowdeswell, Executive Producer of Company of Heroes 2 commented “Our acquisition by SEGA has given us the chance to work with a new partner that has a great track record of working with long standing PC franchises, It gives us great confidence to know that we have a well aligned team working to bring the best experience we can to gamers around the world.”

“We hate to disappoint our fans with a later than expected date as we know they are eager to play but we feel that the additional time will help the team deliver the high quality sequel fans deserve.” commented Greg Wilson, Producer of Company of Heroes 2. “However, the wait won’t be long as players will soon be able to help us test and balance multiplayer in the upcoming Closed Beta. Details will follow shortly.”

Ugh it's a bummer to hear about some of those changes, they sound ridiculous. I hope they listen to the beta testers in time to fix some of them. The driver capture mechanic especially sounds absurd, infantry shouldn't be able to capture an entire tank due to a lucky hit.

InBlack wrote on Mar 7, 2013, 04:03:Well I really enjoyed CoH, Im looking forward to this game so far I havent seen anything negative about it (or positive for that matter) so Im going to take a wait and see approach.

I played the closed alpha and there were plenty of negatives unfortunately. True Sight system sucks and ruins the RPS and territory control they had going on. The choose the OP points thing isn't fun. There was no barbed wire or tank traps in the alpha, no clue if it'll be readded. Doctrines are a grind now. The blizzard mechanics are stupid and uninteresting, they don't really add any strategy to the game and just serve as an annoyance. Your vehicle drivers can be randomly shot and your vehicles taken which is a really stupid RNG game mechanic.

There was plenty of stuff I liked but they added a fair amount of pointless changes for the sake of making changes. Many of the changes made are some token effort at 'realism' and just makes the gameplay tedious. We gave them a lot of feedback so maybe they will get things fixed up for release.

Wow interesting early preview, thanks for that. Well some of those changes sound interesting "driver getting shot, weather affecting gameplay, true sight system (?)". although I can see how they would probably be a burden in a competitive multiplayer environment.

InBlack wrote on Mar 7, 2013, 04:03:Well I really enjoyed CoH, Im looking forward to this game so far I havent seen anything negative about it (or positive for that matter) so Im going to take a wait and see approach.

I played the closed alpha and there were plenty of negatives unfortunately. True Sight system sucks and ruins the RPS and territory control they had going on. The choose the OP points thing isn't fun. There was no barbed wire or tank traps in the alpha, no clue if it'll be readded. Doctrines are a grind now. The blizzard mechanics are stupid and uninteresting, they don't really add any strategy to the game and just serve as an annoyance. Your vehicle drivers can be randomly shot and your vehicles taken which is a really stupid RNG game mechanic.

There was plenty of stuff I liked but they added a fair amount of pointless changes for the sake of making changes. Many of the changes made are some token effort at 'realism' and just makes the gameplay tedious. We gave them a lot of feedback so maybe they will get things fixed up for release.

ViRGE wrote on Mar 6, 2013, 21:14:Unfortunate, but not unexpected with the acquisition. On the positive side this means Sega is giving it the development time it needs rather than shoving it out the door to quickly recoup their money.

....just like A:CM lol

Gearbox's fault, they had what 6 years? and did nothing but finger their asses... ass's?

ViRGE wrote on Mar 6, 2013, 21:14:Unfortunate, but not unexpected with the acquisition. On the positive side this means Sega is giving it the development time it needs rather than shoving it out the door to quickly recoup their money.